Individual Modernity, Schooling and Economic Performance of Family Farm Operators in Israel

The findings of this study provide empirical support for the proposition that underlying ethnic differences - among farm operators in Israel - is a consistent set of psycho-social orientation and manifested behavior associated with the individual modernity syndrome. This set is composed of several dimensions characterized intrinsically by a sense of control over the environment, secularism and an egalitarian perspective. It was shown that occidentals and native born occidentals in particular score high on a “scale of modernity,” whereas farm operators of oriental origin have a traditional value orientation. Modernity is correlated with economic performance. Farm operators who are modern are also economically more effective. Effectiveness is approximated as a “net effect” over and above the variation attributable to differences in the endowments of conventional inputs and formal schooling. However, this is a preliminary approximation which establishes that an association between economic effectiveness and our indices of modernity exists. It may not suffice to provide parameters having predictive power over the “true” modernity- productivity relationship. The latter should be derived from an empirical analysis which rests upon a comprehensive causal model. The structure of a comprehensive model, its estimatable forms and the data necessary for estimation are being investigated presently. Some of the considerations guiding the investigation are the following: